Oral anticoagulation in device-detected atrial fibrillation: effects of age, sex, cardiovascular comorbidities, and kidney function on outcomes in the NOAH-AFNET 6 trial

Gregory Y H Lip, Julius Nikorowitsch, Susanne Sehner, Nina Becher, Emanuele Bertaglia, Carina Blomström-Lundqvist, Axel Brandes, Vincent Beuger, Melanie Calvert, Alan John Camm, Gregory Chlouverakis, Gheorghe-Andrei Dan, Wolfgang Dichtl, Hans Christoph Diener, Alexander Fierenz, Andreas Goette, Joris R de Groot, Astrid Hermans, Andrzej Lubinski, Eloi MarijonBela Merkely, Lluis Mont, Ann-Kathrin Ozga, Kim Rajappan, Andreas Sarkozy, Daniel Scherr, Renate Schnabel, Ulrich Schotten, Emmanuel Simantirakis, Tobias Toennis, Panos Vardas, Daniel Wichterle, Antonia Zapf, Paulus Kirchhof*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

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Abstract

Implanted pacemakers, defibrillators, and loop recorders detect short and rare episodes of device-detected atrial fibrillation [DDAF, previously also called atrial high-rate episodes or subclinical atrial fibrillation (AF)] in ∼30% of patients. Device-detected atrial fibrillation rarely has therapeutic consequences in patients with ECG-documented AF. Device-detected atrial fibrillation without ECG-documented AF can lead to consideration of oral anticoagulation in clinical practice, especially in older patients with multiple stroke risk factors and/or very long DDAF episodes, largely based on observational data. Two recent controlled trials, NOAH-AFNET 6 and ARTESiA, observed a low rate of ischaemic stroke without anticoagulation (1.1%–1.2%/patient-year) in patients with DDAF and stroke risk factors, including in patients with very long DDAF episodes in NOAH-AFNET 6. Current guidelines leave the decision to anticoagulate to clinical judgement, balancing the expected stroke risk, typically estimated by using stroke risk scores developed in patients with ECG-documented AF, and the stroke risk reduction induced by anticoagulation, with the increase in bleeding associated with anticoagulation therapy.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberehae225
JournalEuropean Heart Journal
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

NOAH-AFNET 6 was partially funded by BMBF (German Ministry of Education and Research, Berlin, Germany) through the DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research, Berlin, Germany, grant number FKZ 81X2800182) and by Daiichi Sankyo Europe. Further support was provided by European Union CATCH ME (grant agreement No 633196) to P.K. and U.S. and AFNET; AFFECT-EU (grant agreement 847770) to P.K.; MAESTRIA (grant agreement 965286) to A.G., P.K., U.S., and AFNET; British Heart Foundation (AA/18/2/34218) to P.K.; German Research Foundation (Ki 509167694) to P.K.; DZHK (grant numbers 81Z0710116 and 81Z0710110) to P.K., Leducq Foundation to P.K., and the Dutch Heart Foundation (EmbRACE, grant number 01-002-2022-0118) to U.S. U.S. received grants from Roche (to institution).

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